JPL Plea from Notts CCC Heritage

JOHN PLAYER & SONS – FRIENDS OF CRICKET

Last year marked the 50^th anniversary of a milestone in the development of cricket: the start of the Sunday League, which was sponsored by John Player & Sons for the first 18 seasons. The heritage team at Trent Bridge thought this was an anniversary that should be commemorated ... but the more we thought about it, the more we realised that there was a much bigger story worth recording and sharing: namely the relationship between one of Nottingham’s most significant companies and the sport of cricket.

A team of heritage volunteers has been looking at various aspects of this story, including:

·         John Player & Sons’s general association with the sport of cricket – for instance, their use of cricket images on cigarette cards and at their various points of sale, and their publication of national fixture cards in the 1930s and cricket annuals in the 1970s;

·         Previous and subsequent one-day cricket competitions and matches – starting with the Midlands Knock-Out Competition in 1962, the Gillette Cup (which started in 1963, six years before the Sunday League began) and matches involving the star-studded International Cavaliers who were sponsored by Rothmans, one of Players’s main competitors;

·         John Player & Sons Company cricket – in local leagues, friendly matches and intra-company competitions not only in Nottingham but across the country;

·         Other cricket at “Player’s Rec” on Aspley Lane – including four Sunday League matches, Notts 2^nd XI fixtures, benefit matches and other matches such as the North v South fixture in 1971;

·         John Player and Nottinghamshire CCC – two former Club Presidents were senior executives at John Player & Sons, and the company provided considerable financial support to the Club.  They did however decline the Club’s request to employ one famous South African player and to sponsor another

·         The Sunday League itself – under three different titles: The Players County League (1969), the John Player League (1970 to 1982) and the John Player Special League (1983 to 1986).  The competition introduced a new type of cricket that is credited with keeping county cricket clubs alive in the 1970s; the League attracted many current and new spectators to county grounds and outgrounds, while the coverage on BBC2 created a generation of ‘armchair supporters’;

·         Notts in the John Player League – not a tale of sporting success, with the county’s best performance being second place in 1984.

We have also been looking at ‘background stories’ such as the development of cricket on television, the introduction of professional sport on Sundays, the recognition of the dangers of smoking, changing attitudes towards smoking, and the company history of John Player & Sons Ltd. The project will continue into 2020, and we plan to stage some displays and match-day talks during the spring and early summer, when comparisons with the latest ‘new type of cricket’ – namely The Hundred – will be drawn.  In the meantime:

·         Do you have any memories of Sunday matches in the early years of the John Player League?

·         Do you have any photographs taken at Sunday League matches, or any memorabilia relating to the John Player League?

·         Did you watch any of Notts’s Sunday League matches at Player’s Rec – or any of the benefit matches for Notts players?

·         Did you play cricket for – or against – any of the John Player teams at Aspley Lane?

·         If so, or if you’d like more information about this project, send your contact details to heritage@nottsccc.co.uk

STEVE LeMOTTEE – HERITAGE OFFICER, NOTTS CCC